Episode One: Code Red
by Supreme.Empress.DragonGirl
Summary: The Doctor and a fiery redhead who "doesn't know" him is a recipe for trouble. Throw an old friend who's changed a lot yet hasn't changed at all, and it only gets worse. Just add steel for instant disaster. What could possibly go wrong?
1. Prologue

**A/N: Okay, so, this is the beginning of a SEASON! Can you believe me? :D This picks up after Journey's End, with...apparently no Christmas special? I dunno, but it doesn't really matter. Here it is: Code Red!**

The screeching of the alarm clock woke Donna Noble. "Agh," she mumbled as she slammed her hand down on it. "Bloody hell, I've woken up three times already!" She sat up and squinted at the clock. "Always forget to turn of the alarm on Saturday."

Then, her face shifted from annoyed to horrified.

"Oh, God," she muttered. "It's Friday!"

She struggled to get up, found she was tangled in the blankets, and shrieked as she fell with a loud _thud_ to the floor. Cursing loudly, she got to her feet and scrambled to get ready. She had ten minutes to get to work. How had she managed to oversleep so badly?

Ten minutes later, she slammed the door shut, still pulling on her jacket and inhaling a power bar as she sprinted down the street.

- - -

The Doctor walked down the street. He'd perfected this look: nonchalant, both casual and purposeful, confident but not cocky, cool, composed. He only had forever to practice it and all the reason in the universe to use the time. A lot of reasons, actually, neither the greatest nor the least of which were the ones he needed the skill now. He was on a mission, but it was definitely best if he didn't _look_ like he was on a mission.

The building was one of the taller skyscrapers. It looked familiar — where had he seen it before? Then he remembered, and laughed softly, bitterly. Adipose Industries had occupied that building...had it been two years ago, for him? Three? More than that. Maybe five.

Not here. Here it had been one. Just one year he'd stayed away, one year they'd had to cope on their own.

He shook his head, swiping his hands across stinging eyes, and pushing the thoughts to the back of his mind. If nothing else, he'd become a master of the art of forgetting.

And the last thing he needed now was memories.

He looked up at the skyscraper, not noticing the redhead who ran past him towards the same building. The window-washing cradle was still up on the roof... he looked away, in the other direction, determined not to give in to the images that formed behind his eyes, but he lost the fight. _Damn._

He didn't see the blonde girl in the blue leather jacket who walked past him in the other direction, her head down.

He glanced up at the sign to the building and braced himself for the bitter rush of memories as he turned and walked around the side to go in.

- - -

She hurried down the street before the sign really registered. She'd only glanced at it, after all, and she's been walking quickly. "Hold on," she muttered under her breath. True, she'd stopped for a moment inside to see what it looked like — brand-new businessed were always interesting, if only occasionally in the way she hoped they would be. And as she checked her pockets, she realized she'd left her pen behind.

That settled it. She had to go back, at least for the pen, and while she was at it she could check the sign. She turned on her heel and broke into a run as she headed back for the towering skyscraper.

She reached the building and looked up. "Oh, you're kidding me," she breathed as she read and re-read the large sing, which read, in big, blocky, glowing letters, _Cybernet Electronics._

TSEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOO

DUN...dunDUN DUN...dunDUN DUN...dunDUN DUN dunDUN

DUNdadadada DUNdadadada DUNdadadada DUNdadadada

oooEEEoooooooooo....

The Doctor as played by DAVID TENNANT!

dadadaDUN, dadadaDUN, dadadaDUNdada

EEEooOOOOOOOO.....

Donna Noble as played by CATHERINE TATE!

dadadaDUN dadadadaDUN dadadadaDUNdada

ooooEEEooooooo.....

Rose Tyler as played by BILLIE PIEPER!

dadadaDUN dadadadaDUN dadadadaDUNdada

eeeEEEooo.....

dadadaDUN dadadadaDUN dadadadaDUNdada

DUN dadadada DUN dadadada DUN dadadada DUNdadaDUNdada

DUN dadadada DUN dadadada DUN dadadada

ooooEEEEooooo!

CODE RED by

DOCTORHOLIC

**A/N2: I also have a schedule for these episodes. You get a prologue on Saturday, you see, and then the first two segments of the episode on Sunday. Monday, the second two, and Tuesday, the last two. Then the trailer on Wednesday, and, well, you'll bloody well just have to wait until Saturday, now, won't you? :P Of course, it remains to be seen how well that will work—you all know about how good my updates usually are...I'll try, though, I really will. Lots of writing to hopefully be done of weekends, so I can keep up!**

**~DH~**


	2. Part One

The Doctor was apprehended at once by a young woman. "Have you seen a girl, blue coat, short bleached hair?"

"No, sorry," he said, remembering another girl in a blue coat, who was certainly not the one the woman meant.

"Well, if you see her, can you give her this? It's hers," the woman said, and thrust a pen into his hand.

"But I--" he began, but she'd already gone. He stared at the pen, frowning, then put it in the inside pocket of his suit jacket. With a sigh, he stepped into the lift.

Just as the doors closed, Donna came down the stairs to get a coffee. She vanished through the door as a girl in a leather jacket, her peroxide-blonde hair falling not quite to her shoulders, walked into the building.

"You haven't seen a glass-and-steel pen, have you?" she asked the nearest person.

"Nope," said the man, shaking his head. "Sorry." He hurried along, his trainers squeaking on the waxed floor. She followed him with her eyes, frowning slightly. Who wore trainers with a suit? Honestly.

In the back of her mind, a voice said, _You know someone who wears trainers with a suit,_ but she shook her head, pushing it away impatiently.

She would just have to search for her pen from the top up. She got into the lift.

Donna walked back out with her coffee as the doors slid shut again. She climbed the stairs again, both annoyed that the lift was still busy and glad for the excuse to get some exercise. It wasn't like she had to do much working as a temp. She was a _secretary,_ for God's sake. She sat at a computer and typed things up.

She sat down at her desk. She'd only gotten the job because one of the secretaries had gone on vacation without telling a soul and they'd needed someone to replace her quickly. The worst bit of it was, she'd come a few days later and the backwork was killing her.

Someone came down and handed her some papers to type up. She set to work. It was a few pages, but it wouldn't take her long. After all, she was Donna Noble, best temp in Chiswick.

Ten minutes later, she'd finished, and ran upstairs to give the printed copies to the man who needed them.

As she vanished into the stairwell, the lift arrived and the doors slid open. The Doctor walked out and put a sheet of paper on the empty chair. He wasn't bad at sneaking around, pretending he worked here. Anyways, from what he'd heard, this place lost and hired workers so fast no one would ever know, even without the help of the psychic paper.

He hoped whoever sat at this desk wouldn't look too carefully. The survey he needed typed up wasn't an ordinary company survey, after all. The only temp he knew was probably pretty far from the standard, so he was probably safe...

He clenched his teeth and shut his eyes tightly. He just _had_ to go and think of that, didn't he? This seemed to be a nasty day for not-remembering.

It was then, as he cast around for anythign to take his mind away from it, that he realized he'd left that odd pen on the desk, and so, rather than waiting for the lift, he took the stairs.

He had been trying to hack into the network, but even his sonic hadn't found the right codes yet. The girl in the blue jacket saw this as she noticed her pen sitting on the desk. Ah! There it was. She came over, glanced at the screen, wondered for a moment who on Earth would be hacking into the network, and decided to give them a hand. She pointed the pen at the screen and clicked the button. The glass glowed green, and a single beam of light shot into the black screen. The image rippled, the changed.

Behind her, Donna ran into the lift, her sloppy ginger ponytail flouncing as she sprinted through the doors. She had the nasty feeling she would already have more papers to type up, and she had to _keep_ up, or she would certainly never _catch_ up

The Doctor reached the top of the stairs just as the doors slid shut over Donna Noble and the girl walked casually away.

**A/N: I'm sure you all know already who the girl in the jacket is. :P But what's she doing here? How did she get back? What's going to happen to Donna? Will the three of them ever actually see each other, instead of just missing each other? Does this remind you way too much of Partners in Crime? Do I ask too many rhetorical questions? Find out later today on DDWFFBC! Reviews are my payment for this, you know!**

**~DH~**


	3. Part Two

Donna sighed in exasperation as she saw the papers under her keyboard, with a sitcky note that informed her, in the same untidy scrawl as the writing she had to type, "30 copies to computer 12 from stairs, thanks."

"At least I get one thank-you today," she muttered, and began to type. It seemed an odd sort of survey — questions like "Has anything strange happened since you bought these products?" and "Have you or anyone in your family had lapses of memory subsequently to your purchase?" were mingled in with the usual queries about which products the family had bought and how various qualities would be rated. "Funny kinds of questions," she said to herself. "Who thought those up, memory loss and lack of emotions exhibited."

By the time she'd finished, the Doctor had gone downstairs. He was a tea person, really, but if he was going to find anything out, he didn't have time to go get tea. He would have to make do with coffee.

As he walked down the stairs, Donna arrived in the lift, and dumped her thirty copies of the highly unusual survey on the desk twelve away from the stairs. "Type this up for me," someone said to here as she flounced past. With a resigned sigh, she took the papers. She was sick of temping. Maybe she should look for other jobs.

The girl in the jacket walked by the empty desk and saw the surveys. She glanced at them. She was only disguised as a reporter, but she could get away with taking a few of these. They would certainly be useful for her investigations. She grabbed about half the stack and walked over to the copier.

The Doctor climbed the stiars and forwned down at the surveys. That seemed too small a pile. He counted them. Fifteen? He was sure he'd ordered thrity. Oh, well, he would just need to make more copies.

He walked over to the copier just as the jacket girl went down the stairs, and Donna came up once again. She walked right past his desk, handed the papers back to the one who needed them, and was heading downstairs in the lift by the time the Doctor got back.

He clicked around on the computer. He hadn't even know it was doing anything when he'd gone, but when he got back, it had been in a deeper-than-surface, hidden layer of the site website. He was determined to find out what was going on here, and this seemed like a very good place to start.

But first, he remembered, he had a mission. Before he went poking aroudn _too_ much where he shouldn't be, he could at least find out whether his suspicions had any justification.

He headed down the stairs and out the door.

Donna was sitting at her computer when a voice called, "Oi! You! Redhead!"

"Watch it," she said. "What do you want?"

"Can you take these surveys around to a few of our customers?" a young man asked, wavign a handful of surveys. "Normally I'd ask Hennie to do it, but she's out sick. Do you mind?"

She shook her head, got up, and snatched the surveys from the man's hand as she marched past and down the stairs.

She'd just walked out the doors when the girl in the jacket stepped out of the lift. She held her borrowed surveys in her hand and walked with the same sort of casual-purposeful stride as the Doctor used. She had her head up, her shoulders back, and a determined expression on her face.

It was a mask, all of it, nothing more than a mask. The confidence, the pride. All that was real was the control, because she needed it. She needed it badly. Without that control, the façade would slip, and her shell would break. Without that control, she was nothing.

She brushed her hair back from her eyes and shook her head slightly. She was older now. Harder. Stronger. She was beyond the reach of all the things that had happened in the past.

As she walked out the door, she put the mask back into place, hid back inside her shell, and the girl who had appeared there, for just a moment, was gone. The walls came back up, the barriers and defenses which she kept herself behind, and Rose Tyler disappeared again.

**A/N: As if you hadn't all guessed it already...:P So, what do you think? Like it? Hate it? Want to turn it into soup and eat it? Tell me and get a Code Red chibi!Character set!**

**~DH~**


	4. Part Three

"I'm working for Cybernet Electronics," the Doctor said. "Mind if I step in?"

"Of course not," said the man. "James Cooper, and you are?"

"Ah, John Smith," he said at once, an automatic response, even after years of disuse. "Pleasure to meet you."

"The same," he replied, leading the way into a small sitting room. "Marsha!" he called. "We've got a guest!"

A woman came into the room, drying off her hands with a dishtowel. "So sorry, sir, we've only just cleaned up from lunch."

"Oh, it's no problem," the Doctor said, waving a hand. "I'd just like to ask you some questions about your experience with the Cybernet products."

"Lovely," said Marsha. "Marsha Cooper."

"John Smith, nice to meet you. So sorry to be all about business, but I have to ask, what products have you gotten from us?"

"Oh, let's see," said James. "We've got a stereo, a laptop..."

"Don't forget the phones," Marsha called, having vanished back into the kitchen.

"Oh, yes, the mobiles, all three of us. And Linsey's music player and headphones."

Headphones! "Could I talk to Linsey?"

"Sure." James stood up, walked across the room, and shouted up the stairs, "Linsey!"

"What?" an irate voice called back.

"Come down here, please!"

"I can't hear you!"

"Just a moment," James said apologetically.

"Oh, no problem," the Doctor repeated. James climbed the stairs and shouted, "Linsey! Come downstairs, someone wants to talk to you!"

"Alright," Linsey shouted back. She came stomping down the stairs, her headphones pulled down around her neck. "What do you want?"

"Your headphones are from Cybernet Electronics?"

"Yeah. So?"

"You like them?"

"If I didn't, I would get new ones!"

"What do you like about them so much?"

She shrugged violently.

"Come on, I'm not stalking you," he joked. "I was just hoping to know what's good about them."

"Look at them yourself," she said, and threw them at his head before stalking back upstairs.

He picked them up. Surreptitiously, he pulled out the sonic screwdriver and sonicked them.

Metal shot up from the earpieces, forming half a square. He hissed through his teeth, glanced around, and slipped the headphones in his pocket. He dug around until he found another pair of similar headphones, but ones that were definitely not from Cybernet Electronics.

If anyone noticed the difference, he never knew. "Could you fill out this survey?" he asked James. He waited impatiently, then snatched the survey back when the man was done. "Got to go, lots of people to talk to!"

He ran out the door. He didn't have time now for any other surveys. He had to get right back to Cybernet Electronics, find the head man, and figure out what the hell was going on here.

He was in such a hurry that he didn't notice the girl in the blue jacket who walked past him. She climbed the front stairs of another house and banged on the door. Nor did the distracted Doctor see Donna Noble walk up to the house on the other side of the Coopers', knock politely, and start asking questions.

All he had time to do was the one thing he was best at, the one things he'd practiced for centuries. He ran.

**A/N: Oh, no! What are they planning this time? What about poor Donna, caught up in all this? Will she remember? What will happen if she does? And is Rose ever going to notice to Doctor running around? Find out later today on DDWFFBC! **

**~DH~**


	5. Part Four

Donna returned after finding out someone was already surveying that street. She had a few words to say to whoever had sent her on that particular errand.

She was already running up the stairs when the girl in the blue jacket came in from her disappointingly fruitless search. She took the lift up tothe the third floor, right above Donna.

Unbeknownst to her, only a few feet away, the Doctor was busy at his computer. Even with his newly sonicked up network access, it was taking him a little while to get the information he needed. He pointed the sonic screwdriver at the screen and delved deeper into the network.

He kept nosing around until he found it — the building plan. It was down into the basement, then. He stood up and strode over to the lift. His hand slipped inside his jacket and he pulled out the good old sonic.

"Who needs a key?" he asked himself quietly as he did a bit of jiggery-pokery on the keyhole. The doors slid shut and the lift began to descend.

The girl in the jacket was about to go downstairs when she saw the computer. She sat down and looked around on the network.

She poked around curiously, and then she found it. A single page which proved all her suspicions. She narrowed her eyes at the blue lines across the black background, at the little silver image turning slowly around in the corner of the screen.

"I knew it," she hissed, and jumped up so fast she knocked over the chair. She clicked away and looked at more of the site, and stumbled across the building plan.

"The basement?" she asked. "Funny place to have your office...unless you're _hiding something..."_

She didn't bother to right the chair as she whirled and sprinted away.

She'd just gone down below Donna's floor, her pen in hand, ready to unlock any doors in her way, when the redhead finished printing off copies of a packet. She picked them all up, checked the staples, and marched up the stairs.

On the way along the row of desks, she noticed a chair toppled over. She went to right it and as she straightened, pulling the chair up with her, she saw the information on the screen. She shouldn't be looking at it, really, but she couldn't resist. She scanned through all the pages open onscreen.

The internet page was some sort of digital wireframe model, and a lot of nonsense about Cybermen, and the floor plan was focused on the basement, which was labeled "Manager's Offices." Cybermen? What were Cybermen?

It seemed like the only way she was going to find out was by talking to the manager of the company, and that meant going down into the basement. Forgetting entirely about the papers she was supposed to be delivering to whoever had ordered them typed, she called the lift up.

She stepped inside and looked at the buttons. A key! She needed a key! Where the hell was she going to get a key?

Then she remembered the packets in her hand. She had once had to use a staple, the only thing she'd had on her, to pick the lock on her own car, after locking her keys inside. Surely the key for an elevator couldn't be that much harder? Feeling guilty, nervous, and daring all at once, she unbent a staple and inserted it into the lock.

A few moments of twisting and turning later, there was a _ding,_ and the elevator began to descend.

Donna slipped her staple back into the papers it had held together and pinched the ends closed. No one would ever have to know.

She wathced the number above the lift doors change. 3... 2... G...

B.

B for basement.

The lift _dinged_ again, and the doors slid open.

**A/N: So, now they're all down in the basement, ready to go see the manager about Cybermen. What's down there? What happens next? Well, you'll just have to wait until tomorrow to find out!**

**~DH~**


	6. Part Five

The first room was just a shallow rectangle with a sliding steel door. The Doctor opened the door and stepped through.

He couldn't see anything. He waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, and could make out dim silhouettes. He examined one more closely. He'd seen that sort of machine before...

He moved on, walking down the shadowy aisle between the looming machines. The door on the other end of the room slid open and he stepped through.

On either side, he saw what he'd been fearing: an army of metal men lined up in neat rows and columns against the walls.

"Well," he said softly to himself. "I think that explains the vanishing employees."

The door had just closed behind him when the girl in the jacket walked into the second room. Her torch shone on the machines and her free hand clenched into a fist. "I've seen those machines before," she whispered. Eerie shadows moved across the floor in the narrow beam of light.

She was halfway across the room when she heard the door open. She whirled. "Who's that?"

"Who's _that?"_ a voice shot back.

"I asked you first." She raised the torch. It gleamed off of ginger hair and made the woman appar pale.

"Right, torch out of my eyes," the woman said.

She lowered the torch and let it shine on the floor, reflecting back into her own face.

"I'm Donna Noble," Donna said. "Who're you?"

The girl frowned, then shook her head slightly, sadly. "I — I can't tell you."

"Why not?"

"I just can't, that's all."

"Tell me why." Donna paused. "Please?"

She shook her head again. "I don't know _why._ I just can't."

"If you don't know why, then how do you know you can't? How can you justify it?"

"Because I know there's a reason. There's a man who knows the reason, because he would never, ever do that, not if he didn't have a good reason. He wouldn't want me to tell you, I have no idea why, but I would trust him with my life."

Donna opened her mouth to say something snappish, but changed her mind and lowered her gaze. "Who is he?"

"I can't say. I'm sorry, Donna, I'm really, really sorry."

"What are Cybermen?"

"Where did you her about Cybermen?"

"This computer — I shouldn't have been looking, I know, but the chair was knocked over and I just happened to see out of the corner of my eye —"

"Anyone would have done the same." She frowned. "I wish I could explain."

Donna scowled. "Who is this man you trust so much?"

"He's..." The girl's eyes became softer, less hard. "He's the most wonderful man in the universe," she said, just barely loud enough for Dona to hear. "He's like fire, like ice. He's seen so much. He's lost so much. He's like a storm. The Oncoming Storm."

"He sounds brilliant," Donna whispered.

"He is." Then the girl changed again. The sadness, the vulnerability, it all vanished behind the mask of being untouchable. That was what this girl was. Untouchable.

"Listen, Donna Noble," she said. "Get out. Walk off and don't look back. Forget you ever had this job. Forget about Cybermen. Forget that you ever met a girl in a blue jacket in the basement of Cybernet Electronics."

"Forget? Why the hell would I want to do that?"

"You wouldn't." There was a look of steel, of cold fire in the girl's eyes. "But you have to."

"I won't. I'm not going to go home."

"I need you to do this, Donna. It might save your life."

"Save...my life?"

The girl's face was unreadable. She nodded.

"How do I know I can trust you?"

That caught the girl off guard. "What?"

"How can I trust you?"

"Donna, do you know how fast the Earth turns on its axis?"

"No..."

"A thousand miles an hour. And how fast do you think it goes around the sun? _Sixty-seven_ thousand miles an hour."

She was walking slowly towards Donna. "I can feel it, Donna Noble."

"What?"

"I can feel the Earth turning, going around the sun. This star isn't stationary, you know. The galaxy itself turns, and I can feel it, all the time."

"Who are you?" Donna asked again.

"I'm the girl who doesn't exist." She stopped, barely a foot away. "Now look into my eyes and tell me you don't trust me."

Donna looked into the girl's eyes, and tried to hold that impossible gaze, but in the end she looked away.

"Forget everythign that happened here, Donna," the girl said.

Donna turned around and began to walk away.

When she was in the other room, she paused. She heard a door slide open and slide close.

Only then did she turn back.

* * *

The Doctor closed the door behind him. "Who's here?"

There was a soft laugh from the shadows. "Oh, my, would you look at that! Do my eyes deceive me, or is that the Doctor?"

"Who is that?"

"If you're the one who walks in the light, Bringer of Darkness, then I'm the one who hides in the shadows behind you."

This time the voice came from the other side. The Doctor whirled. "How —"

The voice was farther away and to his right. "I'm the one who haunts your footsteps. An echo. A shadow. A reflection. Whatever you choose to call me."

"What do you mean?"

"You know me, Doctor."

This time, the voice was right behind him, but when he looked over his shoulder, no one was there.

"What do you want? Why are you here?"

"I want to make a better world, Doctor."

"Better?" He laughed. "How is it better?"

"Don't you know that already?"

_Don't go there, just don't go there. Don' thtink about it. Don't think._

"I don't know what you mean."

"_Liar."_ The word was like poison and it stung like acid.

"Tkae away the emotions, and all you have is a shell! No one wants to live like that!"

"Think about it! No more war. No more poverty. No more pain or loss or suffering."

"At the cost of happiness, and love, and excitement! At the cost of individuality!"

"Is it too high a price to pay?"

"Yes!"

"Do you think so? Really?"

"Absolutely."

"We'll see." There was a soft laugh. "Someone's coming to find you, Doctor."

A screen flickered to life overhead, and the Doctor stood frozen as he watched.

* * *

Donna walked quickly across the room. She was nearly to the door when she heard a grinding sound. She turned and saw the machines one either side. They were moving.

Coming closer.

Coming for her.

She shrieked piercingly as they drew closer. She pulled on the door furiously and found she couldn't open it. She screamed again, looking at the machines coming for her.

In the next room, the girl in the jacket heard the screams and spun. Before she could get far, blue lights came on all around her. Steel joints gleamed in the pale glow as metal arms and legs moved for the first time.

The Cybermen were awake.

* * *

"No," said the Doctor. "No!"

"Oh, yes," said the voice in the shadows. "Isn't that a shame?"

"Stop this right now and I can let you leave in peace," the Doctor snarled. "If you don't, then I'm sorry, I am so sorry, but I have no choice but to stop you."

"Oh, but maybe you'll see then why I must do this."

He was getting nowhere. He turned on his heel and ran for the door, but before he could get through, it shut. His hand was caught between the door and the frame. He sucked in a breath through his teeth, gritting his teeth against the pain.

He tried again to find the man who was running this operation, but he could see nothing in the darkness. Nothing but the screen, on which he could see an army of Cybermen surrounding Rose Tyler.

He watched the screen, horrified, but unable to look away.

Suddenly, some sort of light crackled through the Cybermen, and they all stumbled backwards. His eyes widened as Rose did perhaps the most impossible thing he'd ever seen. She stepped back, ran forwards, and _jumped_ onto the shoulders of a Cyberman. Her arms kept the momentum as she sprang off, flipped in midair, and hit the ground running. The Cybermen marched after her. She threw the door open and sprinted away.

"What?" roared the voice, so close but still invisible. The view changed and the screen showed the machine room.

One of the machines had grabbed Donna. The redhead was struggling for all she was worht, her hands flailing, her feet kicking, but it was useless.

Then, she saw Rose.

An icy leaden feeling settled over the Doctor. Slowly, Donna's face changed. Her mouth opened, her eyes widened, and even though the viewscreen had no sound, he could _hear_ the scream that escaped her. For a moment, she was frozen, her mouth wide, her eyes terrified, screaming with pain.

Then, she went limp, still in the grasp of the machine's arms.

The Cybermen were on the march.

A storm was coming.

And even the Doctor couldn't stop it.

**A/N: Oh, yes, I WOULD be that cruel! I'm inordinately proud of my cliffhangers. This one was much longer; after this first episode I'll have a better feel for how long the episodes are and maybe include more chapters or more in each chapter so it's more even. Reviewsare my muse! Oooh, rhyme!**

**~DH~**


	7. Part Six

"Oh, dear, Doctor, darling Donna's definitely deceased," said the voice. "Disastrous, disappointing, disgusting, isn't it?"

That was the last straw. The Doctor pulled out the sonic screwdriver, slid it up to its very highest setting, pointed it at the voice, and pressed the button.

There was a howl of pain, and the door flew open. In a split second, he was on his feet and running. He ran across the now-empty room and into the machine room.

Rose was pointing her pen at the machine that had Donna and evading another one that was trying to get her. "Let go of her!" she shouted. "Let go!"

The Doctor stood behind her and pointed the sonic over her shoulder. The machine dropped Donna. Both of them ran forward and picked her up, and they ran.

"This way!" he shouted as they sprinted out of the building. The Cybermen were already in the streets, and the sounds of screams nearly drowned everything out.

He dragged Donna to the TARDIS. As soon as the doors closed, Rose left the console room and began wordlessly gathering a pile of random bits of hardware.

"What are you doing?" he asked her.

She shook her head mutely and dumped another armload of junk on her rapidly accumulating heap of electronics.

He stood in her way as she headed for another door.

"Would you mind moving?" she asked in a cool, emotionless voice. "I need to get through."

"Get out."

He didn't show how muc the words hurt him, didn't flinch at the coldness in his own voice. He just held her hard gaze and didn't move an inch.

"I'm sorry?"

"Get out."

Her eyes widened a fraction of a degree. A degree? Did eyes widen in degrees?

"Did you just tell me to get out?"

"Yes."

"You just told me...to get out. Of the TARDIS."

"Yes, I bloody well did just tell you to get out of my TARDIS!"

She looked at him, and her mouth opened slightly. Her face had gone pale, but she didn't quite believe or understand.

"Are you asking me to leave?"

"Yes."

"You, the Doctor, are asking me, Rose Tyler, to leave."

"I don't know who you are, but you're not Rose Tyler."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that rose Tyler isn't like this. Rose isn't cold. Rose isn't hard. Rose doesn't not talk to me."

"I can't save everyone," she whispered. He was startled. This wasn't the steely young woman who'd been there a second ago. "Oh, God, I wish I could, but I can't save everyone. I'm just asking you this one thing, to let me save this one person, and then I'll get out, if you want, I swear I will. Just let me do my best to save Donna. Please. She's like my sister."

This had all been mumbled to the floor. Now she raised her head. Her eyes had gone soft, like chocolate, and he could see the blue light of the TARDIS's central column reflected in the glimmer of tears. And just like that, the doors, the walls, the defenses he'd built to keep everyone else out, all fell, and his hearts melted all over again.

He stood aside and watched as Rose Tyler put things right, like she always did.

Fifteen minutes later, some sort of machine had been constructed around the central console. The wires were attached to all sorts of things, and a lot of the contraption looked like it had been made from the pieces of the med bay equipment. Having watched Rose putting it together, the Doctor would guess it probably had been.

Rose threw the switch, and he heard the hum as energy began to pour into the wires. "What is that?" he asked.

"Hopefully, her lifeline," Rose said, and came to stand next to him, watching it.

"We need a plan," he said.

"I know."

"We have to stop the Cybermen."

"I know."

"What are we going to do?"

She turned to look up at him, shaking her head. "I have no idea."

"Maybe we should find a way to sever the power source and shut them all down at once."

Two head turned to stare at the redhead, sitting up on the floor of the TARDIS.

"What?" the Doctor asked, gaping like a fish.

"And why," Donna said, annoyed, "am I full of _needles?!"_

Rose gave a little scream of joy and threw her arms around the Doctor.

"Um — what?" was all he could think to say, looking from Rose to Donna and back.

"DID ANYONE HEAR ME?" Donna shouted.

Rose ran over and began disconnecting Donna from her machine.

"What?" asked the Doctor.

"Honestly! Am I the only one who can think of any real ideas?" Donna demanded. "Or are you two just too lovesick to use your heads?"

Both of them went red. "I — no — _what?"_ the Doctor sputtered.

Donna ripped a fistful of tubes and wires out of her arm and struggled to her feet. "Whoa!" At once, she toppled comically sideways. It would have been incredibly amusing, would have made all three of them laugh, had the situation not been so dire.

"The floor's moving!" Donna squawked. "What the hell is going on? Your floor is moving!"

"Donna, Donna, shh, calm down," Rose said.

"Calm down? _Calm down?_ The floor! Is moving!"

"The floor...isn't moving." Rose grabbed Donna's hands and helped the redhead to her feet. "I thought the same thing. I was afraid there was an earthquake! It'll take a few hours before you can stand, trust me, and another few before you can walk. It's been years for me, and I still have a hard time adjusting to various conditions."

"What are you on about?" the Doctor asked, completely and totally lost.

"Just tell us what to do," Rose went on, ignoring him.

"Well, first I'll need--"

There was a lot of banging and hammering at the door, interrupting them. This was followed by a clearly audible curse, a clattering, and a far-too-loud shout of, "Ha!"

The doors burst open.

A man in a blue army coat stood there, with a huge gun in both arms. As he was about to step in, a burst of light flared up behind him and a laser blast hit him in the shoulder. He staggered forward, howling in pain and swearing loudly, turned and fired twice at his attacker, and kicked the doors closed.

Jack Harkness dropped his gun, straightened, and turned around, clenching his teeth against the pain and rubbing his shoulder. He froze, his hand still across his chest, at the scene before him.

Donna Noble was glaring up at him as she lay on her stomach on the floor. The Doctor leaned against the control panel, arms folded, an unimpressed look on his face. Only Rose, who was the last person he'd have expected to see, looked happy he was there. A slight smile was across her face, somewhere between glad to see him and amused at his entrance.

"Well, hello, everyone," he said, trying his best to sound cool, casual, and confident. It was hard when he'd just been shot in the shoulder and was to the point of wishing it had just killed him, because then he'd wake up and it wouldn't hurt.

Donna said something that sounded like, "Oh, God," and the Doctor, at the same time, said, "Stop it, Jack, just stop it."

"Don't argue," Rose cut in hurriedly. "Donna, listen, how do you think we can cut off the power?"

"Well, what have we got?"

"Um," said the Doctor. "Sonic screwdriver."

"I've got this," Jack said, lifting his gun. "It kills Cybermen like _that."_

"Right, and Rose, you've got...whatever that is..."

Rose grinned as she pulled out the pen. "Lightning pen!" she said in a sing-song voice.

Donna grinned too. "Brilliant. Now, it'll be down in the basement."

"Jack, you should stand guard," the Doctor said. "Don't mean to force it on you, but...you're the one who can stop them."

"I've got my phone," Rose offered. "Donna, you've got a mobile, can we talk over that and you can tell me what to do?"

"And I'll do whatever she's not doing," the Doctor finished.

"Let's go, team!" Jack cheered, and they slapped hands.

"Oi!" said Donna. "What's with me not being part of the team? Just because I can't stand up is no excuse to exclude me, Spaceboy!"

Everyone laughed at that, which made her scowl even more ferocious. "Oh, just get on with it," she said, annoyed. "We've got all of London to save!"

* * *

Back in the basement, Rose and the Doctor crept forwards, while Jack stood by the door, his huge gun at the ready.

Rose had a backpack ful of tools and her lightning pen. The Doctor had his sonic screwdriver in one hand and Rose's torch in the other. He shone the bright light around the back room. No one was there, but he hadn't really expected the mastermidn to have remained. There were several switchboards. Her flashed the torch around in front of him, then over his shoulder.

"Ow! What did you do that for? You great big outer-space git!"

"Sorry," he said, somehow with his powers of Time-Lord-iness managed to pull off a spectacular show of honesty.

"You are _not,"_ she said, but her voice was light, cheerful.

"Right, moving on," Donn said over the phone. "What's going on?"

"Hold on, I've got to make him hold the torch in once place. Doctor! I can't give Donna a report if you keep swinging the light around like that!"

He shone the torch on the control panel.

"Alright, so there's some controls..."

The light moved to her other side, revealing more of the same. "On both sides," she finished.

"Okay. The Doctor will know what to do; you take one side and have him do the other."

She moved over to the left control panel. "Take the other side," she ordered.

"Right," he said, and stepped over to it. "Hand me stuff, yes?"

"Sure," she said absently.

Donna began bossing her around, asking for details of exactly what the control panel looked like ("_Yes,_ it matters what color it is!"), while the Doctor called out for random objects from the backpack.

"Tweezers!"

She handed it over and described a tangle of wires to Donna.

"Pliers!"

"Screwdriver!"

A frown.

"_Regular_ screwdriver!"

"Paperclip!"

"_Paperclip?"_

"Yeah, or a staple, or a hairpin, or something."

She pulled out her earring, glad she'd chosen to wear hooks, and handed it to him.

"What's this? This isn't a paperclip."

"Will it work?"

"Yep!"

"What was that about?"

"Sorry, Donna, bit of confusion about a paperclip."

"I heard that bit," she said dryly. "So, what's the lever look like?"

Hours might have passed, or minutes. Rose worked diligently, fervently, her hands quick and steady. When Donna wasn't bossing her around, she put the phone down and talked softly to the Doctor.

"So, what was with you?" His voice faltered. "Earlier?"

She didn't answer for a moment, but the tears welled up in her eyes right away.

"If you want to talk about it," he added hastily. "I mean, you don't have to, if you don't want to..."

"They're dead," she said softly.

"I — sorry?"

"They're all dead," she echoed, her voice hollow. "Mum, Dad, Tony. John..."

"I'm so sorry," he whispered. "What happened?"

"Nothing."

"How long has it been, for you?"

She laughed sadly. "Longer than you think." There was silence. "And you?"

"Five years." He didn't tell her that it was five years alone, five years that he'd drifted, aimless, hopeless, in the Vortex. He didn't tell her that it had taken him five years for his hearts to heal crooked.

"You haven't changed."

"Neither have you."

He set down his tools and moved to sit next to her on the floor. "Rose."

She focused on the task at hand.

"Rose, look at me."

She didn't look up.

He took her hands. she pulled away. "Rose, tell me the truth. How long has it been?"

She didn't answer, but a tear slid down her nose and fell to the panel. "Ow!" she said, as a strong jolt jumped from the wires to her hand.

He put his arms around her shoulders and pulled her away from the controls. "Rose," he whispered, "whatever you've done, it saved your live, and Donna's, and..." He swallowed. "And mine."

"Can you feel it?"

He closed his eyes and concentrated, and he knew what she meant.

"I can," he told her.

There was a moment of silence, and then he added, in a whisper, "Thank you."

She ducked out of his embrace and turned to look at him, determined, strong. Rose, so stubborn, so proud. She was her mother's daughter.

She turned back to the controls and pulled just the right wire.

For a moment, everything seemed frozen.

She grabed his hand and beamed up at her, the pain of a moment ago gone from her face. "Run!"

His face broke into the first real smile he'd felt in five years, and he sprinted after her. He heard the laughter echoing up the stairs as Jack followed close behind.

The Cybermen lay in the street, no more than steel shells. Faces peered out of windows, people cautiously looked out of doors. The sun was setting, making London appear golden.

The three of them walked back to the TARDIS, all grinning.

The world kept turning.

For the first time in years, Rose Tyler was happy.

**A/N: So, there it is! Jack, Donna, Rose, and the Doctor, all ready to go off on an adventure. Hope you all enjoyed it! And by the way, of course it'll be 10Rose — I mean, who are oyu kidding? **_**I'm**_** writing it! —but it ****will not**** be DonnaJack. Sorry if you were hoping it was, you're welcome if you're glad it's not, and watch out for the TRAILER tomorrow!**


End file.
